“They won’t stand for this,” I said. “It’s not just the one who threw the knife. All of them will hate you. Now more than ever.”
“Let them,” Ashley said. “I’m tops. I’m queen.”
As if anyone could forget.
“They’ll suck it up, just like you,” she said. “It’s not just fancy dresses and immortality I like. I’m going to use this chance to do some good. Leave my mark over the next however many years I hang around this city before I get bored and move on to do something else. There’s no reason to kill. Sure, you guys like power or whatever. Who doesn’t? But feed a fish or a fisherman… Something like that. People are better alive.”
It was nonsense. As was her rule.
“Anyway, make it happen,” she said, as she stepped down from the platform. She didn’t turn back as she walked away. “You’re in charge of making them obey. Congrats, number two.”
I stood there, after she was gone from sight, staring at the open, empty doorway. Ashley King was the slow, agonizing death of me.
“You should have heard them,” Charles said.
I looked down at my progeny.
“They hate her. I mean really hate her.”
I nodded.
“I get it,” he said. “She’s bossy, and young. She throws away men when she’s through with them, as if their time together meant nothing at all.”
To my knowledge it had only been him she’d bedded in her time as queen. Not that I cared either way. It had been a short stint before she’d grown bored with him. He’d whined about it ever since.
“There’s got to be a lot of disappointment and broken hearts left in her beautiful wake,” Charles said. “I mean, have you seen that ass? You haven’t, have you?”
There was a pleading in his eyes. Like the answer mattered.
“No,” I replied.
“Well, it’s nice,” he said.
Then, as if reading my expression was enough, he cleared his throat and changed the subject. “That was sweet, by the way,” he said. “Not sweet like her body, but impressive the way you caught that thing. It was going so fast, I didn’t even see it ’til you had it.”
I looked down at the blade still held tight in my fist.
“Is Bennet still here?” I asked.
Charles’s shoulders sank the way they always did when I ignored his nonsense.
“Nah,” my progeny said. “He’s got Safety Patrol to get back to. I imagine it’s going to be extra rough keeping law on the streets with the new rule. I doubt everyone will just fall in line.”
“Indeed,” I replied.
“And Walter,” my progeny said, “the way you took charge of the situation… Everyone respects you. Everyone follows you. I like Ashley and all, but…” His voice softened to a whisper as he eyed the doorway, and the guards standing just outside. “You’d make a better king.”
It wasn’t a new idea. It was one Bennet had pushed upon me since Yeke’s coup. But I wouldn’t be Tyr’s successor. I would remain loyal, and wait for his return.
“I’m not suggesting anything,” Charles said. “Just observing.”
I looked to my progeny and replied, “That’s just as dangerous.”
Chapter Five
Violet
The bus ride to Scarlet Harbor was unremarkable. The same could be said for the city at first glance. There were rich neighborhoods and poor, there were sky scrapers and small businesses lining busy, cab-filled streets. At one end of the city, was a university, at the other was a large, forested park. A person could walk five blocks and go from the newest buildings, to the most historic. What stood apart in Scarlet Harbor was the site that the city was named after—the harbor itself. During autumn, the water was said to turn red from algae that grew only in the shallow inlet. I was looking forward to seeing it.
The best hotel the city had to offer was just like it would have been in any other metropolis—clean, spacious, and filled with modern furnishings. Most importantly, the Langmoore had rooms available.
A mountain of pillows caught me as I fell back onto the king-sized mattress. The comforter was soft, the mattress below firm. I pushed the heel of one boot off with the toe of the other, and let them fall to the floor. Then I stared up at the ceiling and breathed in that familiar, sterile hotel smell.
As much as I enjoyed people-watching on a crowded bus, or a thrilling fight with a capable bloodsucker, I preferred to end my day on a nice, memory foam mattress. Room service was good, too.
A gentle rapping came from the door. I rose to my feet, rolled my neck from side to side, easing the stiffness of the long drive, and crossed the carpet.
When I opened the door, I found a short, thin man, about my height. His red suit and silly hat made him look like one of those elevator monkeys from cartoons. And from the disgusted look on his face, he thought worse of my outfit.
I smiled.
“You bring my dinner?” I asked, and eyed the cart.
The man stared a few moments longer before he picked up the white paper tucked beneath one of the covered silver trays.
“Filet and garlic mashed potatoes, half rack of honey bourbon ribs, corn on the cob, and extra rolls,” he read.
“Yep,” I agreed.
Again he just stared at me, as if I was a puzzle. I waited for him to notice the stack of cash I held out between us.
“Okay, thanks,” I said, and pushed the bills into his palm. Then I grabbed the cart and pulled it into my room. I wasn’t going to wait for the gawking monkey to bring it in. Not at this rate.
When I shut the door, he was still standing there. Idiot. I mean, I knew the usual one a.m. order wasn’t for this much food. And I knew the typical hotel guest wasn’t covered in dirt, blood, and whatever that green stuff was that stuck to the thigh of my jeans. But come on, tips would be better if he learned some manners.
I pulled the cart to the side of the bed, and considered the irony of my judgement. It was unladylike to eat in bed. Even more so not to shower first. And I could just picture the look of disapproval on my mother’s face if she saw me tear into the steaming hot rack of ribs. Sauce stuck to my fingers and cheeks. And life was good.
The food was good. Not the best I’d ever had, but satisfactory for the venue and the hour. After I finished, I showered and dressed before climbing between the cool cotton sheets. I left my contacts within reach, along with an in-case-of-emergency dagger. That had been my routine since my very first vampire encounter.
He was one of many mistakes I’d made in college. I was nineteen, and naive enough to let a sexy stranger buy me way too many drinks. I would have been glamoured and dead if the girl vamp hadn’t showed up. The two fought, a couple’s quarrel, and I was forgotten. But I didn’t forget.
At first I thought I had discovered this whole amazing new truth, that life could be just like the movies, with me getting eternal life, and being a good vampire. But as I searched, I learned the truth—there are no good vampires.
I opened my journal to the page I’d worked on during the bus ride to Scarlet Harbor, and the browser on my phone to the map of the city. Six possibilities. Each location I’d noted fit the criteria—secluded, above average murder rates, no complaints of other crimes in the area, and missing architectural plans in the city archives. Six likely locations for a vampire nest.
First, I needed some sleep. But at daybreak, the hunt was on.
Chapter Six
Walter
Four nights of policing, and I’d had my fill of playing lawman. Bennet didn’t seem to mind keeping tabs on newly turned vampires, and glamouring humans who’d been left with memories they shouldn’t have. In my time on the street, I’d encountered and ended three thrall, forcefully reminded five vampires not to finish off the meals they were enjoying, and found a middle-aged woman wandering bloody beside the hospital. She had mumbled about vampires, and had been left with the bite marks to confirm her story. I was forced to heal her wounds, and her mind.
Endless nuisances left me nostal
gic for simpler times. Even during Yeke’s rule, it had not been my responsibility to deal with every little annoyance. I was given a job fitting to my skill set, or left in peace. Not so with Ashely.
A phone call pulled me from my patrol. It was Bennet, and what he had found changed everything.
Tall trees stood in clusters, sectioned off from trim grass. Brick buildings were hidden in the center, a separate world from the rest of the city. The residents of the university were like vampires in that they were awake through the night. Drunk youths stumbling between buildings gave the place an unnatural feel. For that reason, I preferred not to come here.
That, and the fact that it was a reminder of the way Bennet had changed upon meeting his wolf, and of the queen’s beginnings and our role in her ascension.
I approached the four-story brick building from the tree line. Half of the windows were lit behind closed curtains, even in the dead of night. Bennet and Charles stood in shadow by the base of the building, along with another vampire, and the body.
When I reached my kin, I looked over the scene. It was dark enough that we were unlikely to be noticed.
“Here he is,” Bennet said. “Flaunting his disobedience in the middle of campus.”
Noah struggled, his face pressed up against the brick wall, fighting my blood brother’s grasp. It was no use. I knew Noah. Not well, but I’d seen him around. He was average, never caused a bit of trouble under Yeke’s rule. But when the bearded king with facial tattoos and war armor had been in charge, few did.
It wasn’t the middle of the university as Bennet had said, but rather the outskirts, fortunate given the circumstances. There was something about this exact location that bothered me, something familiar.
“It was her building,” I said.
Bennet stiffened. This dormitory hadn’t just housed the Queen of Scarlet Harbor before she’d turned. But also Hannah, his amor aeternus. Neither remained.
Noah smiled. Had he known?
“Oh yeah,” Charles said. “I’ve been here before. There was the thrall with the smell.”
“So this is some kind of message?” Bennet growled, tilting Noah’s head down toward the body on the ground below.
“I never said—” Noah pushed back, and gritted his teeth as he spoke.
Bennet twisted Noah’s wrist, changing the vamp’s words into a pained hiss.
I looked down at the dead girl. The resemblance was clear. She wore a black dress that barely covered her, too much face paint, and a mop of near-white hair upon her head. She had a small frame, and high cheekbones, just like Ashley King.
“I didn’t mean to,” Noah whimpered. It was pathetic.
Still, I couldn’t help but imagine how he must have felt when he’d seen this woman. After the constant disruption to our way of life that the queen had caused. After her flippant disregard for our traditions or laws. Had it been me who had found this woman, my reaction may have been the same.
“Let him go,” I said.
“What?” Bennet loosened his grip, but did not release Noah.
I turned to the vampire that I knew I needed to punish, the one I needed to use as an example to the others.
But instead, I asked, “Was this truly an accident?”
Noah fell to his knees, desperation in his eyes.
“Please,” he said. He laced his fingers together. “Mercy, please. It was an accident. I didn’t mean to.”
Bennet scoffed.
“He does look sorry,” Charles said. “But she was super crystal clear about the rules.”
“You can’t seriously be considering this,” Bennet said. “Walter.”
I kept my gaze on the groveling man, whose plight I understood all too well. I knew it was right to listen to my brother. Mercy led to more chaos. And the queen’s wrath would be misery. Not like the torture Yeke had dealt, but something crueler, more creative, like painting her fingernails. I shivered at the thought.
“Go,” I said.
“Thank you. Thank you,” Noah said.
I stepped back as he reached for me. “Don’t make me regret this.”
“I promise,” he replied. “I swear on all that I hold sacred.”
And with that, he rose to his feet and ran for the woods.
Neither Charles nor Bennet attempted to stop him. But this decision was mine alone, as would be the consequences.
I glanced at my blood brother, his face a shroud of disbelief, and I wondered if I had done the right thing. This was not the type of choice I was used to facing, not a role I wanted.
“You know this is going to come back to bite you in the ass,” my progeny said. He clasped his hand on my shoulder.
If he hadn’t been so pissed, Bennet may have smiled at Charles’s words.
And me, I prayed that they were wrong. But the sick feeling in my gut told me that they weren’t.
Chapter Seven
Violet
The bright light and piano music of the hotel lobby cut short as the glass doors closed behind me. The autumn air was cool and crisp, a stark contrast to the warmth inside. I exhaled, and watched my breath turn white and rise like smoke toward the darkness beyond the city lights.
November in Maryland wasn’t anything compared to that in Vermont, or even New York. Here, summer had barely passed, but I’d recently left behind a nearly everlasting winter. A few hours further south, and I could be comfortably sitting on the beach in shorts. Like everything else in life, climate was fickle. Warm, cool, or freezing, I liked it all. It was the change that made life interesting.
Every day, I walked the streets and explored the city. Every night, I crossed off a lead from my list. There was more to learn out here than a map could provide.
On the first day, I walked around the university. It was as good a place as any to start. Vampires often picked young people as victims. Maybe they tasted better. I couldn’t say. No matter the reason, I found nothing suspicious. There were basements in the buildings, but only the usual kind. I didn’t find any secret tunnels or Dracula-types lingering around dormitories. While it was impossible to ever rule anywhere out entirely, I was content to conclude that the university wasn’t the center of whatever shitstorm was brewing in Scarlet Harbor.
After visiting the largest empty office building in the city, and its sewers, I marked that one off, too.
It was dark out when I left, at least in all the dank alleyways hidden from street lamps. On the main streets, it may as well have been the middle of the day. Bright lights shone down over busy sidewalks, and headlights covered busier roadways. But where I needed to go wasn’t so populated.
Next on my list was the docks. I couldn’t get to the docks, or anywhere else in the city this size just by walking. Everywhere I was interested in was at opposite ends of the metropolis, and none near my hotel. So I walked four blocks up Sunset Street, and two over on Maple. It was the closest place to catch the bus.
The bench was metal ice, even through my jeans. It numbed my thighs, and made the cool air feel like summer by comparison. Cabs drove by while I waited, and a limo. A couple walked by, the only pedestrians on the sidewalk by the bench. The woman huddled in her long, thick coat as she clung to the man’s arm. I wouldn’t have minded a thicker coat as I waited, but this one had good movement, and I’d sewn in slots for my throwing knives.
I’d learned to sew from one of my nannies when I was little. It was something my mother had thought all proper ladies needed know. It was a handy skill, just like knife throwing. That one I taught myself.
Right on time, the big, white bus came to a stop. The banner on the side was taller than me, and ran the entire length of the bus. Give Blood Today. Your Donation Could Save a Life. In this city, there were probably a lot of people donating without even knowing it.
The folding doors opened, and a middle-aged man with a perpetual frown looked down at me. I climbed the steps and turned down the aisle. There were only two other passengers on the bus, so there were plenty of seats to choos
e from. I went straight for the back, the best place to people watch. Not just that, but it was also the best seat for making sure someone didn’t attack me from behind. This was Scarlet Harbor after all—vampire central.
Four rows ahead, a young woman sat, clutching her purse. She could have been my age, maybe a little older. I was terrible at guessing. Plus, since vampires usually looked young, I knew a youthful appearance meant nothing. She stared out the side window and didn’t move. I imagined she was trying to get the courage to do something, maybe go home, maybe never go home again.
On the other side of the aisle sat an elderly man, slouched low in his seat. Maybe he hoped to hide from the driver’s view and stay on the bus forever.
The bus stopped twice before we reached the end of the line. Neither of the other passengers left, and no new ones joined us. When the placard at the front of the bus flipped to Harbor Street, I rose to my feet. I left behind the warmth of the bus, and my travel companions, for the crisp breeze by the water’s edge.
The street was paved with bricks, and quaint houses lined the water’s edge. I looked beyond the thick rope that draped between metal poles to the darkness below.
I’d read about the blooming algae that made the water red, and I’d looked at pictures, but seeing it in person was another story. Lamps lit the water around a long pier, illuminating the surface beneath. It was the crimson shade of blood, like the earth’s vein had been hacked open with a giant axe.
Since the city was founded, how many bodies had been tossed over that rope? A shiver crawled up my spine. I wrapped my arms around my waist, resting my fingers over the comforting blades of the throwing knives hidden within my coat.
The end of the residential area came abruptly. Brick houses were replaced by warehouses and paved, fenced expanses of shipping crates. Massive ships flanked the shore, with bright spotlights illuminating the workers and machinery loading and unloading cargo.
Hunted: A Vampire Paranormal Romance (Vampires of Scarlet Harbor Book 2) Page 3